Guy Fawkes, the member of a group of conspirators who planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament who was caught with 36 barrels of gunpowder underneath the House of Lords. Early days of terrorism.

He wasn’t the leader of the conspiracy, just the one that got caught. Yet to this day his name is the one everyone remembers while few people know the name Robert Catesby – the ringleader. Typical of many work situations, the troublemaker is the last to get the blame, while some poor sap gets the lot.

When it was clear that innocent people would be hurt some of the plotters started having second thoughts. How many of the 36 barrels of gunpowder were stashed before it dawned on them that people might be hurt?

One of the conspirators sent an anonymous letter to his friend Lord Monteagle, warning him to stay away from Parliament on November 5th. ‘Dear friend, be afraid, be very afraid…..’ The warning letter was leaked to the King… bummer!

The King had been saved and everybody celebrated by lighting bonfires of celebration, which over the years became a ritual that included fireworks to commemorate gunpowder. Nowadays nobody is sure whether they are celebrating Fawkes’ execution, his daring in trying to do away with the government or the beauty of fireworks .

A popular ritual was to make a stuffed effigy of Guy Fawkes, to burn on the bonfire. Nowadays the fun is deciding who the stuffed effigy will represent. Suggestions welcome.

A smile is taken as some type of agreement and possibly a commitment.
Try saying no to a child while smiling…they will keep saying ‘Oh pleeeease’ until you get cross (and stop smiling.) Say no to another drink while smiling and its ‘Oh go on.’ Try smiling while saying no to a salesmen. They will not believe that you are seriously refusing their amazing one-day-only offer until you stop smiling. Even then it will take longer to get rid of them because you smiled in the first place.

It invites people to share confidences.
It makes us look caring and approachable so that others start spilling their deepest darkest secrets; and we don’t want them to. People who say ‘people are always confiding in me’ bring it upon themselves by smiling too much.

A smile indicates to others that we are nice people.
Our innate sense of fair play makes us feel that we might be misrepresenting ourselvelves if we are not.

We don’t want to seem cheesy and insincere.
We smile at our friends but why bother with strangers when we may never meet again. We don’t tell everyone to ‘have a nice day either. This is because we don’t actually care what kind of day they have.

Lifting the corners of our mouth and baring our teeth seems a bit primitive.
Well apes and monkeys do it. Surely we have evolved.

Basically we aren’t that keen on other people we prefer our pets.
Pets don’t care if you smile at them or not.

We fear rejection.
If the other person does not smile back, we will feel stupid and as though they somehow have the upper hand. It’s far too big a risk.

Our teeth are too ugly.
Well there is a National shortage of dentists!

Public transport.

Motorway service stations (highway robbery.)

Hospitals.

Post office queues.

Church pews .

MPs.

Secondary schools (for the teachers.)

M25.

Family Friendly Pubs.

Deck Chairs.

Charity collectors.

Telephone boxes.

Pub Grub.

Traffic wardens.

Big Brother (the programme and the surveillance cameras.)

Smoking bans (for smokers.)

Bathroom showers.

Football hooligans.

Weather reporters.

Jeremy Kyle.